Degani — Restaurant in Melbourne

My husband booked Degani for Mother's Day lunch today and it was a terrible experience. We had to wait 15 minutes for a table despite booking in advance (no one even approached or acknowledged us while we were waiting to say "won't be long" or anything). Then we sat down and it was a different, smaller menu so I was already disappointed I couldn't order what I wanted (they could have mentioned this when booking). I tried to order the mother's day pancakes but they "had just stopped doing them" (they were still doing other breakfast items though) so I ordered a small vegetarian pizza. I usually eat a strict vegan, gluten and sugar free diet so I was pretty disappointed that I had to waste a very rare cheat meal on something I didn't want. Then I sat there while my son and husband ate their entire meals with no mention of my food. My husbands steak sandwich was soggy and under toasted. My son's chips and nuggets were barely cooked either. I finally said to the waitress, please cancel my pizza as everyone has finished eating now. She tried to bring out a stone cold pizza that had been sitting there for ages covered in olives (I specifically asked for no olives as can't stand the taste or smell). So there I was being taken out to mothers day lunch with my 4 year old and also celebrating having a baby on the way after trying for more than a year and a half, and I was ignored by staff and left hungry. Not a great mother's day lunch. Let's hope dinner worth my mum and...

UPDATE JUNE 2024: This place used to be great, but the pizza I just ate used dough which was dense and unenjoyable, and the fish my wife had was way way too oily. Her salad was mainly lettuce with oil only on it.

What's up with all the oil? How about some salad dressing?

They may have changed to a new chef, or are trying to do things cheap. The value for money here is no longer impressive.

Below is my review from 13 months ago, when we were blown away with the quality.

EARLY 2023 REVIEW: The margarita pizza here was absolutely perfect. The gluten free spaghetti marinara had outstanding sauce and flavour, fair seafood quality and the gluten free spaghetti pasta was a little undercooked (Dear chef, add another 10 minutes!). Gluten free pasta takes longer to cook than wheat based pastas. We encounter the issue of undercooked GF pasta more times than not in restaurants. We've got into the habit and letting them know we're happy to wait a bit longer for it. However, this time, it was cooked well enough to still be enjoyed. The waitress Julia was exceptionally attentive and informative. It's pricey here but the taste sensation factor was better than with the average restaurant. The serving size...

I am usually at Degnis Plenty Valley at least once a month and the food is usually good, this time is was appalling! My son ordered the chicken, cheese toastie on focaccia and I order the egg and bacon toastie on multigrain. Both came out cold, in fact the chicken in my son's toastie was totally cold. He didn't care and just ate half of it before saying anything to me. When I told the waitress, she apologised, took them both back and advised we would get fresh toasties. I would have been happy with them reheating ours, but anyway, I thought that was nice of them. Unfortunately when they came back, mine was at best lukewarm, and the disappointing thing was they made a "fresh one", I think, but in turn took out half the bacon and I was left with bits of toast with no filling. My son got his half a focaccia back, not a fresh one, and it had been re-toasted which made it hard and crusty on top, and the chicken was only lukewarm! Very disappointed and we're now seriously considering we'll go across to Base for lunch from now on...